This morning
Lyzasoft is represented by
Scott Davis, CEO,
Brian Krasovec, CTO, and
David Pinto, VP Engineering. Scott started with an explanation of their vision, the statement of which is long but insightful: "
Our vision is a Collaborative Intelligence experience that marries the best of social networking (blogging, bookmarking, trust, commenting, rating, profiles, collections) and business intelligence (data integration, analysis, visualization, stats, dashboards) to enable user-generated analytical assets which emerge, adapt, circulate, and grow in a way that makes the organization’s intelligence community better able to sense, respond, and learn." In other words, they propose to mash social networking practice together with BI tools...carefully!
Collaboration is NOT a linear
process. Like a dinner conversation, Scott remarked, filled with the ebb and flow of ideas and issues.
It is a messy process! Scott suggested the 5 C's for user roles: Consume, Consider, Collaborate, Create, Cultivate. To support these roles, the required capabilities are: synthesis (massage the data), analysis (compare & contrast), publication (package & distribute), adaptation (value add with new context), and leverage .
Traditional BI assumes
instantiation of the required data in properly structured tables. Given its limited effectiveness,
there is a huge need for "Enhanced Data Federation" (term from Colin White), which complements (not replaces) the enterprise data warehouse. Scott insists that he is not arguing to replace another of the current infrastructure, but to build upon that infrastructure.
Barry Devlin noted that few people that can use the data actually use it. Data is sterile in of itself. Need the social context that stimulates conversation around the data. People are currently downloading data into Excel spreadsheets and analyze/conclude whatever they want. In Lyza people must have identity and then share to specific persons or groups. Further, the sharing is one dealing with feeds, rather than data downloads.
Scott and team did a demo emphasizing the social dynamics of data analysis. Here are a few screen captures
111 222 333 without annotation. Sorry!
My Take...
Lyzasoft offers a fresh approach on the social dynamics of Business Intelligence in the corporate setting. It is not for all corporate cultures. However, those corporations that are serious about stimulating innovation should be serious about executing on the organization changes required for an open and collaborative work environment. An excellent start point is to understand the dynamics of Lyzasoft's Collaborative Intelligence and its integration into the IT infrastructure.
